


todah al ha'nerot

by MiriRainbowitz



Series: Hamiljews [1]
Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: F/M, Hanukkah
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-07
Updated: 2015-12-07
Packaged: 2018-05-05 13:01:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5376152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MiriRainbowitz/pseuds/MiriRainbowitz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I saw <a href="http://artclear.tumblr.com/post/134702819221/where-are-the-hamilton-hannukah-aus">this post</a> on tumblr, and it made me want to write fic where Alexander was actually a Jew, so I wrote this.</p>
            </blockquote>





	todah al ha'nerot

**Author's Note:**

> Translations were provided by [Annie](http://thebelovedsaralance.tumblr.com). If you hover over the Hebrew transliteration, you can see the translation. I'm not sure it'll work on mobile, so I'll keep the translations in the end notes too.

“Honey, I’m – home?” Eliza said, taking in the sight of Alexander talking quite enthusiastically to their neighbor – what was her name? Hannah? – in the living room. She couldn’t understand what they were saying, because the conversation definitely wasn’t in English. “Um…”

“Eliza!” Alexander said, quickly walking over and kissing her. “Good, you’re home. Chana, todah al ha’nerot, v’chag sameach.”

“B’vakashah,” Chana replied. “Im atah rotzeh lenasot levivot sheli, az tavo bayom a’aharon shel chag.”

“Ani yeshtadel lavo,” Alexander said as Chana walked out of the apartment.

“So… what was that about?” Eliza asked.

“Oh, yeah,” Alexander said. “Hanukkah starts in a few minutes, and I realized that I didn’t have any candles, so I asked Chana if she had any, which she did, and then we just – started talking. It was nice, I haven’t been able to really have a conversation in Hebrew with anyone in _years_. Oh, and by the way, she apparently makes really good latkas, and she invited me – or, us, probably – to come over a week from today to try them.” As he was talking, he went over to the window that overlooked the street, which was covered in tinfoil and had a chanukiah and a lighter on it.

As Eliza watched, Alexander pulled two thin candles out of his pocket and set them in the middle and farthest right branch, then lit the one in the middle.

“Alex, what –” Eliza started to say, but Alexander shushed her, then started singing in – Hebrew, probably. One of the things Eliza loved about Alexander was his voice, but tonight, for some reason, there was just something about his singing that had tears stinging in her eyes.

Once he was done, he took the candle out of the middle branch and used it to light the other candle, then stuck it back in its branch and started singing again, this time sounding slightly less reverent than the first time.

When he was finished singing, Alexander stood there, looking at the lit candles silently for a few seconds. Eliza finally said, “So… you’re Jewish?”

“What? Oh, sort of,” Alexander replied, before going over to the couch and sitting down. He put his laptop on his lap, but didn’t open it. “I… from what I can remember, my mother wasn’t very religious, and my foster parents were Jews, so I kind of grew up Jewish, and I went to Hebrew school and – I guess I just kind of absorbed being Jewish. I’m not all that – observant, but I try to make a bit of an effort, and Hanukkah is one of my favorite chagim – sorry, holidays.”

“What was the stuff you were singing?” Eliza asked. She’d never seen this side of Alexander before – she’d honestly assumed he was Christian – but it was just another piece of the puzzle that was Alexander Hamilton, and now she wanted nothing more than to figure it out.

“The first three things I sang were brachot – prayers, sort of,” Alexander replied. “Basically…”

Eliza listened as Alexander started going into detail about all the stuff he’d sang, then moved on to talking about the Hanukkah story – the miracle of the tiny Jewish army defeating the massive Greek army, and the miracle of a single day’s supply of oil lasting for eight days. It was really nice, Eliza thought. A bit weird, sure, but she would definitely put up with worse if it meant spending the rest of her life with Alexander.

**Author's Note:**

> Chana, todah al ha’nerot, v’chag sameach = Chana, thanks for the candles, and have a good holiday (approximately, bc the concept behind "chag sameach" is kind of hard to translate into English)
> 
> B’vakashah = You're welcome
> 
> Im atah rotzeh lenasot levivot sheli, az tavo bayom a’aharon shel chag = If you want to come over to try my latkas, come by on the last day of the holiday
> 
> Ani yeshtadel lavo = I'll think about it
> 
> A chanukiah is a nine-branch candelabrum that we use during Hanukkah
> 
> chagim is the plural form of chag, which means holiday.
> 
> Also, fun fact- because he wasn't acknowledged by his father, Alexander couldn't go to school with all the other Christian kids, so the only school he could go to was a Jewish day school. He probably knew Hebrew, and I personally think that the main reason he was so argumentative is because he went to school with a bunch of Jews, and we _love_ to argue.


End file.
